Research

Mixed

Combined muscle-strengthening and aerobic activities provide greater reductions in all-cause, cardiovascular, and total cancer mortality than either activity alone or neither.

For the best protection against death and major diseases, combine muscle-strengthening exercises with aerobic exercise. This combination offers significantly greater benefits (40% lower all-cause mortality) than doing either one alone.

LimitedSupportsVERY_LOW confidence
Combined muscle- strengthening and aerobic activities (versus none) were associated with a 40% lower risk of all- cause mortality (RR 0.60...), a 46% lower risk of CVD (RR 0.54...), and a 28% lower risk of total cancer mortality (RR 0.72...)
Haruki Momma et al. · British Journal of Sports Medicine · 2022

Why this rating

Certainty is 'very low' due to heterogeneity and study count, but the magnitude of benefit is large.

Source

Muscle-strengthening activities are associated with lower risk and mortality in major non-communicable diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies

Haruki Momma et al. · British Journal of Sports Medicine · 2022

DOI 10.1136/bjsports-2021-105061

Meta-analysis · 16 studiesCited 245×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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